A book that I got from the
book swap shelf at Stratford Station – the only one I’ve ever managed to pick
up from there, but it was worth it! I originally grabbed it for my mom, as she
had liked Capital more than I did,
and only read it after she did and because of her very strong recommendations.
Fragrant Harbour has many of the traits of the standard best-seller: an “unusual”
love story, international intrigue, a look at the blurred lines between
orgranized crime and top-level impresarios and plenty of others. The thing for
me was that, being set in Hong Kong, it was both interesting from an historical
point of view and very different from a standard best-seller.
Predictably, the book’s bottom
line is that there are colonialists with a heart (and also a sense of humour
and self-criticism) and entrepreneurs who are far from being evil capitalists.
This is not exactly the most unusual of messages, but it is delivered with
grace. And the appearance of Tom’s nephew is something that really makes one
hopeful that good people can overcome drunken British hooligans…
With Capital I had the feeling that Lanchester could have made so much
more given the rough material he had at his disposal, but I think that with Fragrant Harbour he managed to get the
most out of his plot and research – or maybe I’m just way less familiar with
Hong Kong that I am with London!
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